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Peane Maleka

Peane Maleka

I am a research scientist based at the National Research Foundation (NRF) facility, iThemba Laboratory for Accelerator Based Sciences (iThemba LABS) in Cape Town, South Africa. My main responsibilities include amongst others research and training of postgraduate students. I supervise a number of postgraduate students from various universities in South Africa and other African countries on projects related applied nuclear science. I am currently responsible coordinator for the neutron vault upgrade which involve various departments within iThemba LABS and external stakeholders; National Metrology Institute of South Africa and University of Cape Town (South Africa), PTB (Germany), IRSN (France) and NPL (UK). When this vault is ready, the neutron science community will have access a facility which is capable to provide quasi-monoenergetic neutron energies in the range, 40 – 200 MeV. I am also participating in the Coordinated Research Project (CRP) group of the Nuclear Data Section (NDS) at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to provide experimental data of neutron induced reactions at high energies for the IRDFF data file.

iThemba LABS participate within the BrightnESS² consortium in Work Package (WP) 2: A strategy to deliver neutrons for Europe and beyond. iThemba LABS brings on board scientist from various research discipline (Nuclear Medicine, Material Science and Subatomic Physics) together with the instrumentation team with vast experience in accelerator technology for collaborative projects and networking. The neutron vault available at iThemba LABS is capable of providing quasi-monoenergetic neutron energies at 40 – 200 MeV and is one of the two facilities (other one in Japan, RCNP) that can service the neutron science community interested in this energy range.

South African interest in participating in the BrightnESS² programme stems from the fact that it has a long history of research using neutrons provided by the two key national facilities, namely NRF/iThemba LABS and Necsa. Given the focus areas in these facilities, there is always a need for SA researchers to have access to other neutron facilities that can provide alternatives. The commitment from the office of the Director at NRF/iThemba LABS is that, “To this end, we have taken great strides in ensuring continued collaborative interactions with local and international universities, science agencies and several research laboratories across the globe”. This emphasise the importance of access to global infrastructure and global networking of which the BrightnESS² programme provide such platform.